:: [ SVVS Visit to Brooklands at the invitation of JEC - July 2010 ] ::

Our Member Peter Clark is also the Chairman of the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club, Surrey Region, who meet at the Brooklands Motor Museum. JEC Regional Committee extended an invitation to the SVVS to join them at their Thursday July meeting in their oldies and to display them along with JEC Jaguars. During the evening Peter arranged for a guided tour of the Museum and for exhibits to be laid on for both sets of club members. Some 20 SVVS cars attended a superb evening. Many Thanks. The text below is by Chris Cuss and photos are by Bozi Mohacek. Please click on any thumbnail picture below to see the full size picture. To return to the thumbnails please click the Explorer "Back" arrow (top left of screen).  Being evening, photos were taken in poor light so have been artificially lightened.

      

 
      


      


      


      


      


      

 
      

JEC/SVVS VISIT TO BROOKLANDS MUSEUM

The Surrey branch of the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club meets monthly in the Clubroom of the Brooklands Museum. We are fortunate that their chairman, Peter Clark, is also a member of our Society as he invited us to join them for their July meeting which meant getting into the museum free of charge. An added bonus was that he had arranged a whirlwind tour of some of the museum's more interesting exhibits. There was a good turnout of our members and it could have been argued that we outnumbered the home team depending on how one counted the joint members. Without a shadow of doubt we won the prize for having the largest vehicle, a 1939 Leyland Cheetah 31 seater coach. The obvious advantage of the evening's venue for such a large vehicle was the availability of plenty of parking space. We had about half an hour in the famous paddock to kick tyres before our guided tour commenced so I was able to try to make a quick note of SVVS members present. Our Jaguar contingent was represented by the aforementioned Peter Clark and his namesake Peter G. Clarke who had brought his beautiful Suffolk Sportscars replica SS 100. This is an ideal car marrying 1930's style with modern mechanicals and performance. Chairman Bozi brought his XJS V12 whilst Lionel Higginson was in his 1963 E Type roadster.

Tony Spencer was identified as the owner of the gold coloured Rolls Royce Silver Shadow that had been puzzling me. Tony changes cars so quickly I have trouble keeping up. Douglas Wright's Bitter was in attendance again and as always excited interest. Bryan Pooley exercised his 1987 Alfa Romeo Spyder and keeping the Italian theme we noted Will How's 1956 white Lancia Appia as well as a similar car in contrasting black. M.G. and Riley both mustered 3 cars. Dick Johnson brought his 1953 TD and Tim Ralph had his brother as passenger in his 1938 TA. The BGT owned by Alan Pratt followed the Riley Lynx and Kestrel duo of Lloyd Jacob and Cuss all the way from Cheam. The third Riley was the 1937 Monaco owned by Roger Mathews. Parked neatly by the clubhouse we noted Chris Hewitt's razor edged Triumph Renown whilst Roger Horstman's TR5 needs no introduction. The JEC members' cars were mainly saloons of the XJ variety.

We could have remained in front of the clubhouse all evening but Peter, our volunteer guide, was waiting to welcome us to the museum and ushered us into the historic motoring village. Pride of place is occupied by the massive Napier Railton that was built for John Cobb. This outer circuit monster is powered by a 12 cylinder 24 litre Napier Lion aero-engine and holds the lap record at 143.44 mph. In later life it was fitted with rear disc brakes and used for aircraft parachute testing before returning to its birthplace.

At the other extreme we noted the tiny 98cc Rytecar Scootacar wearing an SVVS badge. This example of a 1930's micro car was driven around the world during the 1960's by Jim Parkinson from Redhill who was one of our founder members. 

After all too brief a time amongst the cars and motorcycles we crossed the concrete of the finishing straight to enter the Wellington Hangar. Occupying centre stage was the recreation of the Vickers Vimy bomber that made the first Atlantic crossing in 1919. This replica undertook all the epic flights of its illustrious predecessor before being flown into the museum last autumn for an honourable retirement. Close by were two World War II veterans, a Wellington bomber that was recovered from Loch Ness and a Hurricane fighter that has been repatriated from Russia.

All too soon the tour was over and we repaired to the sanctity of the Members' Bar, normally out of bounds to mere mortals. Some chose to sit out on the balcony to enjoy the last of the mid summer evening whilst the rest of us relaxed in the comfortable leather sofas. As we left the paddock after dusk we were treated to the ghostly spectacle of a parked XJ saloon with interior flashing blue LED lighting looking like something lost on its way to a discotheque. Chris Cuss

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